Abiteboul reveals frustrations: "We must react and shift our focus on reliability”

Renault had a very disappointing race in Bahrain. Both cars were forced to retire on the same corner after an issue with their engine. Nico Hulkenberg was driving incredibly well and had managed to get himself up to 9th after starting the race in 17th whilst Daniel Ricciardo seemed to be more comfortable in the car and was set to finish well in the points. 

After the race, Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul was very disappointed with the events of the race. 

“We have to be cleaner going forward and make sure we don’t face any more disappointments like this,” Abiteboul said to formulaspy.com. 

“After a very intense winter, it’s been a very bad start to our racing season. Similar to Melbourne, our qualifying in Bahrain was massively compromised by minor electronics issues, which impacted both cars. Our race today came to a sudden stop so close to the finish.

"These are issues we have previously encountered but something we were unable to rectify in Bahrain. These problems are increasingly frustrating and unacceptable as both cars have shown very good competitiveness both over one-lap and race runs.”

“Nico delivered another outstanding drive from seventeenth to sixth. Daniel is building on previous experience in the car, and despite good race pace, his strategy gamble didn’t work out. Daniel will continue his familiarisation in the car during this week’s test conducting performance-related work. We must react and shift our focus on reliability.”